It turns out that the talent of the actors involved ultimately led to the scene being cut, because Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow were too likeable as the titular characters.
The scene was set shortly after Mira Sorvino’s Romy is busted by her former classmates for not actually inventing Post-It notes, as she claimed.
The director insists that test audiences were in hysterics thanks to Will Ferrell’s performance in the sequence, though, but sadly it didn’t manage to make it into the finished cut.
David Mirkin explained that the reason they looked to include the cell phone plot in the film was because, back in 1997, having such a device was seen as a status symbol.